With the W word, Sophie’s ears perked up and Colin gave a short bark, initiating a ripple of responses from the furry patrons nearby.
Piper laughed. “Looks like the decision’s been made.”
Aiden’s credit card appeared in his hand before the waitress returned. Piper reached for her own purse, but he gave her a withering look. “At least let me pay for our first official date.” When she continued to fish out her wallet, he added, “Please?”
It wasn’t like she could afford it, anyway, so she gave him a grateful smile. “Sure. Thank you. But I’ll get the gelato.”
“Sounds fair.”
Probably not, she thought.
The moment the waitress handed Aiden’s card back, he was out of his seat. He turned his back to the restaurant, or to Holly, she supposed, and dipped his head closer to the waitress.
“Do you happen to have a back way out?” he asked her in a hushed tone.
“Certainly,” she said without missing a beat. “It’s right through there.” She pointed to a hall at the back of the restaurant.
Piper wondered if this was a common request. She’d seen more than one celeb-type person with their furry friends in tow that night. The type of clientele that would come to a swanky place like The Dog and Bone might want to keep a low profile, avoid paparazzi. However, in this case, the paparazzo happened to be dining there.
Aiden and Piper clipped the leashes on to Colin and Sophie and headed past the relaxation area. Stuffed puppies lounged on oversized pillows, some twitching while they napped, dreaming of chasing rabbits. Ducking through the quiet hall, Aiden held the back door open for her. The cool night air rushed in, but before she stepped out Piper stopped.
“Oh. I forgot my purse.” She handed over Colin’s leash. “I’ll be right out.”
She returned to their table and found her purse dangling from the arm of her chair. Grabbing it, she turned to head back, but then she heard her name.
“Piper?”
She froze, cringing as she recognized Holly’s voice. So much for sneaking out. Rolling her eyes, she turned around and waved.
Holly Hart sprang from her chair and sashayed across the room, sneezing repeatedly as she passed the Bow-wow Bar.
“Piper. So good to see you.” She gave the air near Piper’s cheeks a couple of kisses, like they were best friends meeting in Paris.
“Holly, I’m surprised to see you here with your dog allergies.”
She leaned in, whispering conspiratorially. “It’s a marketing ploy. My ratings jumped after that segment about your dog rescue center. It seems the way to this community’s heart is through their mutts. I’ve gotta keep up appearances, you know?”
“Right. Yeah.” Piper tried to keep a straight face. “That’s why I do it.”
“So.” Holly smiled coyly like they were just two girls gossiping. “What are you doing here?” Her eyes darted around the room, undoubtedly searching for Aiden.
God knew, Piper could never afford to eat at a place like The Dog and Bone. Anyone could see that. But Aiden wanted to avoid Holly, so she didn’t want to give him away. She pretended not to notice Holly’s surprise, as though she rubbed elbows with the rich and famous on a daily basis. That her shoes were Jimmy Choos and not on clearance at Target.
“Just thought I’d pop in for a bite to eat.”
“Only you?” Holly asked. “All alone? Not with one of your four-legged friends?”
“Colin’s outside,” she hedged.
“All by himself?”
She wasn’t going to lie, but quite frankly, it was none of Holly’s business. “No.”
When it was clear she wasn’t going to spill the beans, Holly gave up the pretense. “Don’t worry. I won’t get you into trouble. I’m off the clock now, anyway.” She blew a seductive kiss to the man back at her table, who was still wearing his sunglasses inside, at night.
“I don’t know what Aiden’s so worried about,” Holly continued. “It’s not like his love life is the stuff of Channel Five News or anything. I’m a hard-hitting journalist now. I don’t work for the San Francisco Gate anymore.”
“You used to work for the Gate?” Piper asked.
“It’s where I got my start. While I worked there, Aiden Caldwell was something of a fetish of mine.”
Now that Piper could understand.
“He was one of the city’s most eligible bachelors. Still is. And boy, did that guy have taste.” She shook her head wistfully.
Piper wasn’t stupid. She knew that Holly was trying to get information out of her. She gnawed at her lip before plowing on, anyway—she couldn’t walk away after a statement like that.
“Taste? You mean, in women?”
Holly widened her eyes. “We’re talking the bluebloods of the financial kingdom, daughters of the most successful Fortune Five Hundreds. The upper-crusters. Ivy League, part-time model types. Made me grateful for my mega zoom lenses.” She winked conspiratorially. “You know what I’m saying?”
“Right,” she said, but she didn’t want to think too hard about what that meant.
“He made my job real easy, you know? Always showing off his new trophies, making a real spectacle of it. But things got kind of quiet after his dad passed away.” She shrugged and patted Piper on the shoulder. “Well, looks like he’s back in the game.”
The game?
“The bad boy of the Financial District is back.”
Piper knew she should deny it or say something vague. Her silence was practically an admission that Aiden was hiding somewhere. But suddenly she didn’t feel like covering for him anymore. She wondered why she was supposed to, why she had to slink out the back into a dark alley to avoid being seen.
If what Holly said was true, then it wasn’t like he worried about keeping his private life a secret. He never did before. But then again, he’d been dating models and socialites, graduates from the country’s top universities, not a singing-telegram girl. Not exactly a headliner for the Gate.
Or maybe it was. Only when she imagined it it wasn’t her and Aiden caught in a glamorous, well-lit red carpet shot. It was one of those poorly timed photos, where a transition between facial expressions could also be construed as being drug addled or a having a mental breakdown.
Piper’s headline would read: “Tycoon Aiden Caldwell: Who Let the Dogs Out?”
Maybe it wasn’t about keeping his private life under wraps but Piper herself.
Deep in thought, Piper said good-bye to Holly and slipped out the back door. When Aiden saw her, his face lit up like the flash from a paparazzi camera. Distracted as she was, she couldn’t help but smile in return.
It was all in her head, she told herself. A ploy constructed by Holly to stir things up. Besides, she had nothing to be ashamed about. She was as good as any Ivy-Leaguing, elbow-rubbing, champagne-drinking, hoity-toity model. Hell, better. She had street cred.
Part of her wanted to be frank and confront Aiden about it, to blurt it out and be done with it. Walking next to her down the dark, narrow alley, he reached out and took her hand in his. It felt so warm and wonderful. Suddenly, like a giant Araucana, she was too afraid to ask him about it. Because what if it was really true?
Don’t be stupid, she chastised herself. If it was true, then he wasn’t the guy for her and she was wasting her time. Pulling away, she turned to face him, but as though Colin could sense her annoyance, he began to growl next to her, loud and steady like a gas lawn mower.
“Colin, what’s wrong, boy?”
He ignored her. Hackles raised, he stared at the end of the long alley like he suspected it of foul play. Piper followed his glower and noticed a dark car parked about halfway down. It could have been blue, black, green, anything really, since the alley was dim. The headlights were off, the engine idling, absolutely nothing out of the ordinary. Right? They might have been waiting for someone. Anyone.
Even her and Aiden.
The headlights flicked on and her skin began to crawl.
&n
bsp; “Let’s go around the other way,” Piper told Aiden.
Colin resisted her tugs on his leash, like he was playing a game of chicken with the car and he was confident he could win. Her money was on the big metal thing, so she bent down to pick him up, smoothing his hackles down.
“Come on, Colin.”
The dark car flicked on its high beams. Harsh LED lights filled her vision. She grunted, shielding her searing retinas against the light. She couldn’t see a thing, but she heard the engine rev, high-pitched and whiney.
“Piper.” There was an urgency to Aiden’s voice, matching her own building unease.
She scooped Colin up into her arms and reached for Aiden’s outstretched hand. Sophie was already in his other, pressed protectively to his chest.
The engine revved again. Tires skidded on loose gravel until they found purchase on pavement. The rubber chirped and the car sped toward them.
Blinking light spots from her vision, she stumbled as Aiden tugged her along. She was more grateful than ever for the Lycra dress, which allowed her to move freely. They were running, sprinting, gasping for air. There was no longer any doubt whom that car had been waiting for. She wanted to cry out for help, but she couldn’t catch her breath.
Up ahead, the alley narrowed to single traffic where a Buick had parked alongside the rear of a building, next to a Dumpster. Their pursuer’s headlights lit up the space. It sped closer. Both she and Aiden weren’t going to make it around the Buick in time. They had to split up.
As Aiden and Piper approached the next building, she noticed an alcove to a back entrance. She wrenched out of Aiden’s grip and pushed him aside. He grunted, taken by surprise. His step faltered and he pitched to the side, careening into the alcove with Sophie in his grasp.
Holding Colin to her chest, she dove in the opposite direction and rolled on top of the Buick’s wide hood. Aiden called out to her, but she couldn’t see if he was safe, or anything for that matter, beyond the blinding lights. She couldn’t see the car, not the color, the model, or the driver. The lights were coming straight at her. And her money was still on the car.
She crawled farther back on the hood, leaning against the window, and curled her body protectively around Colin. She hoped the car would avoid colliding with the solid Buick.
She was wrong.
The impact threw her forward, or maybe the Buick back. Metal crunched against metal; headlights flashed too close to her face. The impact threw her off the hood. She tumbled down between the side of the Buick and the brick wall of the building it was parked next to.
Her bare arms scraped down the rough bricks. She twisted her body so she didn’t fall on Colin. Pain shot up her right side as she hit the ground, bits of gravel piercing her skin.
The Buick shifted next to her as her attacker scraped by in the narrow space and sped toward the other end of the alley and out to the main street. Claustrophobia kicked in, compressed as she was between the Buick and the wall. Like a Piper panino.
She felt dazed, scared, certain this was the end. Her eyes were still blinking with flashes of light. Engine sounds faded into the distance; then she heard someone’s name being called over and over again above the ringing in her ears.
“Piper!”
Oh … it was hers, she thought belatedly.
“Piper, answer me. Can you hear me?”
Some part of Piper’s rattled brain told her it was a good idea to answer back. And then she thought, Oh, good, I still have brains. They weren’t splattered across the parking lot.
“Piper!” Aiden called again.
“I’m here.” Her voice squeaked out as tiny as a mouse’s, like she’d sucked the entire contents out of a Macy’s parade balloon. She cleared her throat and tried again. “In here.” Although she still hadn’t pieced together where “here” was.
She blinked and took in the dark space, the Buick, and the brick wall. Oh yeah, she thought, the alley. From under the car, she watched Aiden’s feet move to the other side. Footsteps shuffled as he searched for a way to get to her. The car hood banged as he squeezed between it and the garbage bin.
She glanced up and his face appeared in the narrow gap between the wall and the car. He squatted down and peered into her panino.
“Oh, thank God,” he said, resting his forehead on the Buick’s hood for a moment. “Are you hurt?”
Hell, yes, she thought. She became aware of Colin grunting and squirming beneath her, trying to free himself from her vice grip. Relaxing her arms, she flexed them and straightened her legs to see if they all worked. Her right side throbbed from her fall, but nothing else seemed to hurt too badly.
“I think I’m all right,” she said, but groped her head just to make sure it was still attached.
“Can you squeeze out of there?”
“I’ll try.”
Rolling onto her stomach, Piper wormed her way to the front of the car, ignoring the sharp bits of gravel that scraped her arms and God knows what else that squished under her hands. Colin scuttled around, licking her face and shoving his snout in her ears and hair to assess for injuries.
“Not helping, Colin. Yes, I’m happy you’re okay too.”
Once she’d wiggled her way between the front tire and the brick wall, Aiden helped her to her feet. She didn’t even have a moment to catch her breath before he crushed her against his chest.
She held on to him for physical support as much as emotional. Her legs were shaking, her hip and elbow throbbing, and her world still spun.
When she glanced back at what little space was left between the Buick and the wall that she’d been sandwiched between, Piper the juicy jam squished in the middle, she thought it was a miracle she escaped. And Colin had tried to warn her. He sensed something wrong, like he could smell the danger. It was that inexplicable instinct that animals had—they just had a way of knowing.
“Are you hurt?” Aiden asked, his eyes dark, his hands moving over her like he wasn’t convinced she was safe in his arms yet.
Adrenaline-soaked as her body was, she wasn’t ready to believe her senses. She took stock of her injuries, counting limbs and fingers to make sure they were all present and accounted for. To her surprise, she found very little wrong. Some missing skin on elbows, gravel imbedded in her palms. It was likely she’d discover new injuries for days to come as aches surprised her and the bruises blossomed. Oh, how there would be bruises. Zoe’s dress, on the other hand, had seen better days. Piper’s dry cleaner would have to be a magician to save it.
Colin circled her feet, sniffing at her ankles, coming up with his own diagnosis. After a moment, he sat back on his haunches and barked up at her anxiously.
She bent down to pick him up and cradled him in her arms, letting him give her kisses. “I’m not bad. But the night’s still young.” She said it jokingly, only she wished she were joking.
“I’m not letting you out of my sight for another second.” Aiden pulled her back toward him, like he couldn’t stand to not be touching her. “I wish they’d find that taxi already.”
“The taxi?”
“Yeah, maybe there will be some clues as to who’s doing this. This can’t be a coincidence. It has to be related to the attacks on the center.”
Piper realized that he’d been blaming himself all this time, for everything. That he thought it was because of his briefcase and the information contained in it. Meanwhile, the entire time, she figured it had something to do with her.
She didn’t bother responding, since she couldn’t be sure. The fact was, she did piss off a lot of people; at least she had recently. It could have been the person targeting the center or Laura, or Barney Miller, or even Tamara for that matter—although a catfight in Aiden’s house was a lot different from vehicular homicide.
“Did you happen to see the plates on that car?”
“No.” He pulled out his cell phone. “But I’ll call the cops. Maybe they can track them down before they get too far.”
“I should have them on
speed dial by now,” she said dryly.
He still hadn’t let her go. For once, she didn’t mind him looking after her. “Well, hopefully this will be over soon.”
Piper hoped so too. Only she hoped it was because they caught the guy. Not because he got what he wanted.
20
Piece of Tail
The elevator dinged as it reached the top floor of Caldwell and Son Investments. Remembering how things went for her the last time she was there, Piper hesitated before getting off. She dreaded facing that snooty admin assistant. But Piper’s assets were covered a great deal more than they were the last time. And besides, what did she have to feel out of place for? She’d been invited by the boss, after all.
Tightening the belt on her raincoat, she stepped into the foyer and strode right up to the reception desk. It might have been Piper’s imagination, but the girl working the desk appeared more orange than the last time, as though she’d swapped her tangerine self-tanner for a lovely shade of marmalade. The girl recognized her, because she smiled, a little devilishly, Piper thought.
“Hello.” She glanced around like she expected to see the horse head.
“Hi. I’m here to see Aiden Caldwell?”
“Are you here for another singing telegram?” Her face lit up, not unlike a big orange jack-o’-lantern.
“Not today. I’m just here to speak with your boss.” Piper made sure to emphasize the word boss.
It had the effect she was looking for, because the girl’s mouth tightened like a drawstring purse. Standing up, she tugged her pencil skirt down and smacked the release button on the secure doors. “This way, please. He’s expecting you.”
Piper pressed her lips together to hide a triumphant grin. She followed her through the glass doors and down the long corridor lined with offices. She was only limping a little that day, although she’d had to skip her high heels for her telegram gigs. But it could have been much worse.
It had been two days since the attempted hit-and-run and the cops had found no leads. Nor did they receive any tips about the rescue center vandalism like she’d hoped they would after her appearance on the news. Their “one week” was up that night, and they had nothing.
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